This ludicrous college football season could, imho, be safely settled right now:
Have Alabama play (and slaughter) Ohio State, the former the one reliably and consistently balanced, competent, efficient and well-coached team, wear down and pull away from the latter, the talented but under-challenged and over-hyped standin for all similar flavor-of-the-moment but still mainly untried media darlings from outside the SEC...NEITHER led by men worthy of our trust or admiration--but nonetheless ruthlessly good at what they do. All kinds of sad lessons there.
Meanwhile, everyone else goes on with their mainly (in terms of Championship pursuit) irrelevant efforts in what at this point amount to glorified scrimmages, helping them to sort out where they're at, where they're going and how they'll get there--emerge from the huge scrum of "parity", the future decided as much out in the hinterlands on the recruiting trails as in the crowded stadiums where the rest of us "have nots" (or at least "not ENOUGHS") fool ourselves/pretend that the individual game-outcomes actually MEAN something.
Um, do I sound bitter? Disappointed? Cynical? "Say it ain't so, Joe!"
Sorry, Johnny: it's all too true: most Ncaa football squads amount to cannon-fodder, not even a chance at playing for "anything meaningful" at the level schools like ours and MAYBE (at MOST) a coupla dozen others expect to vie for--and just a month into the season, most of THOSE are effectively eliminated...by now most of us have to INVENT, by circuitous logic and blind hope, rationales to keep ourselves interested.
Oh, we each still have a few games left here and there "for pride" and "bragging rights", but its mainly back to building for NEXT year and beyond.
But there IS that. We gather fortunes and spend it vying for position in that complex sprint ourselves.
"Wait'll next year..." is all we've got, all we live for as fans. So at least let's do it right, do it well. Let's make sure our Coach and staff are on track, and it's a longer, further ride NEXT year...
(OK OK I'm NOT completely serious here. But I'm not "completely kidding" either. ALL we can do is keep the pressure on our coaches AND those who hire and administer funds and organizational oversight, HOPE we somehow keep them all vaguely on track towards that the "Big Prize".
It's a big, day in/day out all-year job.)
Have Alabama play (and slaughter) Ohio State, the former the one reliably and consistently balanced, competent, efficient and well-coached team, wear down and pull away from the latter, the talented but under-challenged and over-hyped standin for all similar flavor-of-the-moment but still mainly untried media darlings from outside the SEC...NEITHER led by men worthy of our trust or admiration--but nonetheless ruthlessly good at what they do. All kinds of sad lessons there.
Meanwhile, everyone else goes on with their mainly (in terms of Championship pursuit) irrelevant efforts in what at this point amount to glorified scrimmages, helping them to sort out where they're at, where they're going and how they'll get there--emerge from the huge scrum of "parity", the future decided as much out in the hinterlands on the recruiting trails as in the crowded stadiums where the rest of us "have nots" (or at least "not ENOUGHS") fool ourselves/pretend that the individual game-outcomes actually MEAN something.
Um, do I sound bitter? Disappointed? Cynical? "Say it ain't so, Joe!"
Sorry, Johnny: it's all too true: most Ncaa football squads amount to cannon-fodder, not even a chance at playing for "anything meaningful" at the level schools like ours and MAYBE (at MOST) a coupla dozen others expect to vie for--and just a month into the season, most of THOSE are effectively eliminated...by now most of us have to INVENT, by circuitous logic and blind hope, rationales to keep ourselves interested.
Oh, we each still have a few games left here and there "for pride" and "bragging rights", but its mainly back to building for NEXT year and beyond.
But there IS that. We gather fortunes and spend it vying for position in that complex sprint ourselves.
"Wait'll next year..." is all we've got, all we live for as fans. So at least let's do it right, do it well. Let's make sure our Coach and staff are on track, and it's a longer, further ride NEXT year...
(OK OK I'm NOT completely serious here. But I'm not "completely kidding" either. ALL we can do is keep the pressure on our coaches AND those who hire and administer funds and organizational oversight, HOPE we somehow keep them all vaguely on track towards that the "Big Prize".
It's a big, day in/day out all-year job.)
